Aventurine
by android kitty
Summary: After a pokemon attacked May and left her blind in one eye, her parents hid her away from the world in a misguided attempt to protect her. However, when May runs away from home to become a pokemon trainer, she finds herself crossing paths with an organization that seeks to scorch the earth and set the skies aflame - and it's up to her to stop them. (Hoennchampionshipping)


**a/n:** this is completely unedited and probably terrible im so sorry. it's loosely based off of the game, but I'm going to be taking a lot of liberties with how the plot goes and all. the main pairing is probably gonna be hoennchampionshipping, unless i change my mind or something c:

if my capitalization of pokemon names seems inconsistent, it's because I don't capitalize if I'm referring to just the species in general, but I do if I'm using the species name as the pokemon's name.

**warnings:** very very occasional cursing, mild violence, sort of dysfunctional family relationships. maybe more later, but not right now.

thanks for reading!

* * *

Chapter 1: Moss Agate

Known as the crystal of agriculture and growth, moss agate symbolizes both wealth and new beginnings.

May's parents took her to visit the MooMoo Farm near the end of spring for her seventh birthday. The vibrant flowers that speckled the grassy hills were just beginning to bloom, multicolored petals opening their faces to the powder blue sky, and it only seemed natural to venture off the beaten path for a picnic. May was a lively, curious child, easily distracted and prone to wandering off when her parents weren't looking, so her parents weren't particularly surprised when she slipped away halfway through lunch. Worried, yes, but they knew that she would find her way back to them. She had an outstanding sense of direction, most likely inherited from her father, and although she wandered often, she was never lost. They searched for her halfheartedly, but they knew that she would return eventually, most likely bored once again and in search of new adventures to have.

As usual, they were proven correct. They found her half an hour later, sprawled out on the ground with her back pressed up against a tree trunk. She was trembling, her eyes wide and terrified. A hulking persian loomed over her, with wild, unhinged eyes and bloody gouges scored across its back. Her parents watched in horror, petrified, as its claws sliced through the left side of her face, parting flesh as smoothly as a knife through butter. May screamed, and screamed, and screamed, even after the persian was dead and broken, collapsed in the grass underneath Mr. Maple's furret, and after the ambulance came and took her away.

After hours and hours of nervous, silent waiting, her mother and father were faced with sympathetic eyes and regretful frowns, gentle words and "she's lost vision in her right eye" and "the wounds are too heal completely, so she'll have scars from this for the rest of her life." They are filled with guilt and regret and the knowledge that it's all their fault. Their daughter could be whole, happy, but her smile is gone now, and it's all their fault.

They never let her out of their sight again.

* * *

"...so we're going to be moving to Hoenn, for your father's new job," Caroline finished, her eyes concerned. May just glanced at her mom blankly, her face void of emotion. After a brief moment of eye contact, her eyes darted away nervously, gazing at her intertwined fingers resting in her lap. A long silence passed before she finally looked up again.

"Okay," she murmured, her voice soft. Caroline's eyebrows furrowed, and she sighed, uncertain.

"Are you sure you don't mind? I know you're," she paused for a moment, searching for the least offensive word, "apathetic to most things, but this is a big change. Hoenn's a whole new region, and it's nothing like Johto." Something flickered in May's eyes, and her fingers dug into her palms slightly.

"It's not like I'm going see anything besides the inside of our new house," she retorted bitterly.

"May, honey, you know it's for your own good. With your condition, it's better to stay inside. It's a dangerous world out there, sweetie. You understand, right?" They'd been through this argument over and over again, every single day, and May knew it all by heart. It was the same answer every time, and she was sick of hearing it.

"I'm going to my room," she muttered. Caroline sighed.

"Don't forget to pack!" she called. Her only answer was a loud bang as May slammed her bedroom door.

* * *

The moving truck only had two seats, so May had to ride in the back with the boxes. It took her fifteen incredibly frustrating minutes to convince Caroline that _no,_ she didn't care and that the probability of the boxes falling and severely injuring her was basically nonexistent. The ride was long and bumpy, and she spent it aimlessly playing video games, glaring at the faintly glowing screen as if it had committed a personal wrong against her. By the time the truck shuddered to a halt, her DS had died and she had dozed off, her cheek resting against one of the cardboard boxes.

She woke up to Caroline's muffled voice, and winced as the back of the truck opened and bright light burned away the darkness, raising her hand to block the sunshine. "Are you okay, May?" Caroline asked, overbearing as always. "None of the boxes fell or anything, right?" May just rolled her eyes and hopped out of the truck, stumbling slightly when her feet hit the ground. Caroline reached out to steady her, but May shoved her arm away, the corners of her mouth turned down in a faint frown.

"I don't need help getting out of the car, mom," she said coldly, shoving her DS into her backpack. Most of the boxes unloading and unpacked quickly with the help of the machokes the moving company sent over, and by the time the sun is high in the sky, Norman was on his way to Petalburg City and Caroline was ushering May up the stairs to her new room.

"Don't forget to set your clock, okay? I'll be downstairs if you need me."

"Believe me, I won't," May muttered as she closed the door, surveying the room. The walls were the same shade of sky blue as her old room, with cream colored curtains and rosewood furniture. Her bed was next to the huge window that overlooked most of the town, complete with the coral eevee patterned sheets she had made an offhanded remark about wanting. She would have been touched, really, but she knew that it was just another one of Norman's attempts to buy her affection back (and lessen the guilt he felt for caging her in the house like a pidgey with clipped wings).

May dropped her bag on the ground and flopped down on the bed with a sigh, staring at the white ceiling blankly. She wondered who her parents would be getting to homeschool her now that they were in a whole different reason. They were in no hurry, probably, since she didn't need tutoring in the middle of summer. She stayed there, prone, watching the sky slowly turn golden, then pink, then crimson.

After dinner (which was as silent as usual, especially with Norman's absence), May wandered into her bathroom and unpacked her toiletries. There was a large mirror on the wall above the sink, and when she looked up, she could see her reflection staring back at her, three deep scars on the left side of her face running from her eyebrow to her cheek bone, cutting past a milky white eye. She scowled, her eyes determined, and began the process of removing the mirror from the wall, leaving behind an expanse of white only marred by two nails, parallel to each other. She shoved the mirror in the back of her closet, pointedly ignoring the mirror on her closet door.

The way her parents' eyes were always drawn the her scars before they saw anything else was enough of a reminder of her disfigurement. She didn't need to look at it every morning and evening and whenever she washed her hands and be reminded of the reason why her parents never let her out of the house, even at the age of sixteen.

Sometimes she wondered what her parents do when she turned eighteen and became a legal adult. Would they still try to hide her from the world? May shuddered, her eyes darkening. _Sometimes,_ she mused, _It's just better to not think about it._ She just wanted to hope that someday, she'd be able to escape her cage and fly free.

* * *

When May woke the next morning, she felt a brief flash of panic until she remembered where she was. Years of always waking up in the same place had left her complacent, but the change was oddly welcome. The sun had already risen, lavender tinted sunlight shining through her window and pooling on the glossy wooden floor. May sat up, covering her mouth with one hand and yawning widely. After changing into more presentable clothes and halfheartedly brushing her hair, May trudged downstairs for breakfast, biting back another yawn.

When she swung the door open, she was surprised to see Caroline talking to a man in a white labcoat and a teenage boy with a strange white hat that looked to be somewhere around her age. When Caroline noticed her, she smiled and beckoned her over. "May, this is Professor Birch and his son, Brendan. They live near the Littleroot Pokemon Lab." May stared at them blankly, her eyebrows knitted together.

"Um," she said, eloquently. Years of never talking to anyone besides her tutor and her parents hadn't exactly done wonders for her social skills. "Hello?" Luckily, the professor didn't seem to mind.

"Nice to meet you, May," he exclaims brightly. "Your mother has told me all about you!" He extended his hand, and May stared at it for a moment before she realized that she was supposed to shake it. She did so, awkwardly, and dropped it immediately after, as if it were a hot coal. Brendan snorted, and his father sent him an admonishing look. "Introduce yourself," he muttered, elbowing him.

"Sup," Brendan drawled, raising a hand in greeting. "Brendan here." May shrugged, avoiding eye contact as usual.

"...Nice to meet you," she mumbled, her gaze focused at her feet. "Um, I need to finish unpacking, so…" she trails off, eager to escape socialization. Caroline blinked, perplexed.

"But you just came down, honey. Don't you want breakfast?"

"Maybe later," she faltered, already backing away towards the stairs. "I'll, uh, come down later, okay?"

* * *

Other than that painful experience, May settled down relatively well. Two weeks of her sitting around inside and sort of just existing passed by until her mom mentioned that she was going to visit Norman in Petalburg for a few days. "You'll be okay, right? You won't go outside or anything?" she kept on asking, her expression as annoyingly worried as it always was. May resisted the urge to groan, crossing her arms impatiently.

"I'm not gonna die if you leave me alone for two days. I'm sixteen, mom. I can take of myself." She still looked concerned, but May ignored her pointedly. "I'll stay inside, okay? I promise." She was actually lying through her teeth, but Caroline didn't need to know that.

Caroline finally left on Saturday morning, and May felt a wave of excitement surge through her. Her parents had never left her alone before - when one of them was out of the house, the other one was always there. Once she saw Caroline's car disappear into the horizon she raced up to her room and changed out of her sleepwear, pulling on a pair of ripped denim shorts and black crew socks. She pulled on a pair of boots with a surprisingly large amount of difficulty (since she never really had any need to wear shoes) and laced them up with eager hands, her feet hitting the ground the moment she finished and carrying her downstairs again. She pulled her hair up in a messy ponytail as she exited the house, slinging her backpack over her shoulder.

The summer sun beat down on her, enveloping her in a scorching embrace. She felt her mouth curling up into a wide smile that felt almost uncomfortable on her face, but she didn't care because she was _outside _and she could do whatever she wanted for two days. She spun in a circle, wrapping her arms around herself. She probably looked like a complete idiot, but practically nobody lived in Littleroot Town, so it wasn't like there was anybody watching to judge her.

She spent a couple of hours just exploring the town, wandering through every little street and side street. It was about mid afternoon when, as she passed by the exit to the town, and little boy ran up to her and grabbed her arm. She flinched at the physical contact and jerked her arm away, but he didn't seem to mind. "Miss!" he yelled. "I can hear someone yelling! It sounds like it's coming from Route 101. I'd go to help, but my mom told me to stay here… Could you go see if somebody needs help?"

_This is just like the quests in the video games I play,_ May thought, resisting the urge to grin. _Probably not the best thing to do while someone is screaming for help,_ she realized. "Sure," she replied, her voice quiet as always despite her rising anticipation. "I'll go take a look." She jogged off in the direction of the faint yelling she can here in the distance. By the time she reached the source of the noise, she was disappointingly out of breath. _I guess sitting around all day doesn't really do wonders for my physical fitness._

To her confusion, Professor Birch was hanging from a tree branch, his legs bent up protectively. A poochyena was sitting below him, growling at him. May couldn't help but feel a little amused at first, because the poochyena was actually rather cute, but looking at it's gleaming teeth and curved claws brought back hazy memories of claws slicing through her skin and warm liquid trickling down her cheeks, mixing with salty tears.

She shivered, goosebumps erupting all over her arms. Professor Birch glanced at her and his eyes widened in relief. "May! There are some pokeballs in my bag. Use one of the pokemon to scare these poochyena off!" May blinked, surprised. Dreams of becoming a pokemon trainer, almost forgotten, raced to the forefront of her mind, and she immediately bent down, grabbing the first pokeball she saw and tossing it into the air.

A green, lizard-like pokemon materialized in a burst of white light. It looked at her curiously, tilting it's head to the side. May took a deep breath, the countless books she read on pokemon training resurfacing in her memory. The pokemon was called treecko, from what she remembered, and it was a grass type native to Hoenn. The guide for beginning trainers had mentioned that most low levelled pokemon knew either pound, tackle, or scratch, so she hazarded a guess as to which one Treecko knew, hoping fervently that she got it right.

"Treecko! Use pound on the poochyena," she ordered, sounding more confident than she felt. The treecko nodded and raced forward, hitting the poochyena and knocking it back slightly. It growled, turning its attention to the treecko and May. It started running towards Treecko in what May recognized as a tackle attack. "Dodge it, and use Poochyena's momentum to knock it into the tree with another pound attack!" she called, thinking on her feet. Treecko leapt to the side as the poochyena ran towards it and slammed it into the tree. It swayed on its paws, unsteady, and glared at Treecko. One more pound attack knocked it to the ground, and it turned tail and fled, searching for easier prey.

May heard a quiet thud as Professor Birch dropped to the ground, dusting himself off. She returned the treecko, placing the pokeball back in the bag and handing it to him. "You know, that was quite an impressive battle for someone who's never trained a pokemon before." May smiled, hooking her thumbs around her belt loops.

"I've always wanted to be a trainer, so I've done a fair amount of research." Professor Birch raised an eyebrow at that.

"That's strange," he commented. "Your mother made it sound like you don't even like pokemon." May grimaced.

"My mom doesn't really get what I want," she complained. Professor Birch chuckled, reorganizing the pokeballs and papers.

"I still don't understand my son, and I've been living with him for his entire life." He shouldered his bag, rubbing the back of his neck sheepishly. "Well, I need to be getting back to the lab. If you have the time, you should drop by today. I owe you something as thanks for saving my hide back there." He headed back into town, leaving May standing there, dazed.

_Did that just really happen?_ she wondered. _I just had my first pokemon battle, well, ever._

* * *

When May knocked on the door of the lab, a researcher in a lab coat opened it. "You must be May," she guessed, smiling. "The professor has been waiting for you. He's over there - see?" She pointed at the back of the room, where the professor was talking to a lab aide. May walked over nervously, wondering what would happen next. When Professor Birch noticed her, he smiled widely and waved away the lab aide.

"May! I was hoping you would drop by." He reached for something behind him, glancing at the messy desk. "Now where is it…" He grabbed something and turned around, holding it out to her. May stared at it in confusion, her brow furrowed. He was holding out a pokeball with an expectant expression on his face. "It's the treecko you battled with earlier. He was supposed to live at the lab with me, but I think you'd appreciate him a lot more. Consider it a token of my gratitude." May's eyes widened.

"Seriously?" she asked. When he nodded, she grabbed the pokeball excitedly and released Treecko, beaming at him.

"Do you want to give him a name?" the Professor asked. May's smile widened more than she had originally thought possible.

"Of course," she said. She bent down to look Treecko, looking him in the eye. "I'm going to be your trainer now. Do you want a name?" she asked, thoughtful. When Treecko nodded again, her eyes lit up. "What about Osiris?" The treecko nodded again, his eyes gleaming. May grinned and stood up, returning him. "Thank you so much!" she exclaimed, her eyes bright. Professor Birch waved a hand dismissively.

"No problem. I think he's better off with you, anyways."

It was only a few hours later when it finally sunk in. "I have a pokemon," May murmured. "Finally."

_Mom is going to be so, so pissed._


End file.
